Marathoner!

I am happy to report that I completed the Sydney Marathon on Sunday! I ran a 3:44:41 which  I am really happy with.
The distance was hard, I went out too strong for the first 30 km and ended up paying for it later on. The weather was great and there was a great atmosphere at the starting line and throughout most of the course, with lots of people giving support to runners along the way.  As I was saying, I felt great up until about 28-30 km and my pace was solid, but then I started to hit  ‘The Wall” , from about 35 km onwards. The race directors kindly decided to put most of the hills from 30 km on, which was nice of them.. It was an awesome experience and my recovery is going well, I can walk normally again! 
I have qualified with room to spare for the Blue Mountains Trail Marathon in March.

Happy Trails!

Train. Believe. Achieve

Only 1 week to go until the main event. I am heaps keen to get up there and see what I can do
I have been running 3 days a week, pretty much every week since the half marathon in May. Trying to stick to my short runs (6.4 km) 2 mornings a week before work, and then increasing my long runs on the weekends from about 10 km upto 30 km which I got through a few weeks ago in 2 Hours 45 Mins. According to my Garmin GPS watch, I have covered roughly 300 km in training which is average for that amount of time.
I feel well prepared and will only be going light and easy until race day.

Watch this space for a post race report and my results!

The Marathon Des Sables

I’m the first to admit that I order a lot of books about running, but I don’t care! They are the best.
I am past the training books and body mechanics ones, because they are all pretty much the same. I am loving the biography style ones at the moment. I am currently reading The Marathon Des Sables: Enduring the Toughest Footrace on Earth. A runners first hand account of what it takes to get to the Marathon of The Sands, and then what happens when you get there. 150 Miles across the Sahara over 5 days, carrying all of your food rations and kit.

It just gets me excited and motivated to do something like that. There are a few ultra races in Australia each year, and its something I will be looking at next year. First steps though, run a good marathon in Sydney and qualify for the Blue Mountains trail marathon.

Sydney Marathon

It has been about 5 months since the Sydney Half-Marathon, and I pretty much entered the full marathon straight after it. It was such a good experience and I finished it in about 25 minutes quicker than I expected (1:45:36). I have been trying to prepare as much as possible in between work and other stuff going on. I still managed to get a 30 km run in, which was what I was meant to peak at anyway. Very keen to see what I can do for the full 42.2 km, Aiming to stick with the 3:45:00 pacing team for as long as possible. Happy Trails!